91849 - SONG WRITING

EXEMPLARS OF STUDENT WORK

EXCELLENCE EXEMPLAR

For Excellence, the student needs to compose three original songs that convincingly express imaginative thinking. This involves developing, structuring, refining and representing original lyrical and musical ideas with stylistic assurance and flair and communicating with impact. Representation expresses imaginative intent, in detail, and is appropriate to the genre.

These students have collaboratively composed three contemporary songs in a digital environment (Logic), and the example provided here is entitled Way. The song has a clear and recognisable form which begins with the chorus (1), featuring a trap beat and sampled vocals over a simple 4-bar chord progression. Three verses/choruses follow, finishing with the chorus.

There is a sophisticated blending of samples, lyrics, beats and electronic accompaniment throughout. The lyrics themselves express imaginative thinking on the theme of love, allowing the feelings of a young man to be explored and the “way” he feels.

Many of the lyrics provide impact with clever rhymes and images (2) (3) (4).

The representation of the song is appropriate to the electro-pop genre, with the provision of screen shots (only two included here) detailing the creative process (5) (6), together with a clearly mixed audio track of the duo performing their song.

For a more secure Excellence, the students could further detail the written representation with the addition of chords to the lyrics, as they were outlined in one of the screen shots. The ending of the song could be reworked to be stronger and fully demonstrate flair for the genre, by using a fadeout, for example.

MERIT EXEMPLAR

For Merit, the student needs to compose three original songs that effectively express imaginative thinking.

This involves developing, structuring, refining and representing original lyrical and musical ideas skilfully with style and character. Representation expresses imaginative intent appropriate to the genre of songwriting.

This student has written a contemporary song to express imaginative thinking on the feelings associated with their home coming. The song is clearly structured with an intro (1), verses (2), chorus, (3) an instrumental passage (4) and bridge (5). Together, the music and lyrics demonstrate style and character, with a degree of stylistic assurance. The melody and lyrics blend effortlessly.

The lyrics develop a 1st person narrative around the songwriter’s desire to return home after a stint in the city (6). Coming home to the “familiar” gives the narrator a sense of optimism and joy which is skilfully captured from the gently strummed guitar intro.

The guitar accompaniment continues in a similar fashion to complement the clear audio recording of a singer who can employ an effective range of skills, including an improvised feel to the word “home”. This is refined songwriting for this curriculum level.

The representation is appropriate for genre, with a generally clear lyric/chord chart.

To reach Excellence, the student could further develop the instrumental section of the song to make it more of a feature, and allow the songwriter to fully demonstrate flair for the genre. The lyric/chord chart also needs to be completed.

MERIT EXEMPLAR

For Merit, the student needs to compose three original songs that effectively express imaginative thinking.

This involves developing, structuring, refining and representing original lyrical and musical ideas skilfully with style and character. Representation expresses imaginative intent appropriate to the genre of songwriting.

This student has written a contemporary song, in the folk genre, entitled ‘Picture to Burn’. The song has been structured in a clear and recognisable form, which includes an intro (1), verses (2), chorus (3), and a bridge section (4). This structure is clearly presented on the lyric/chord chart, with accurately indicated chord changes.

There is a sense of style and character to the song through its directness in effectively expressing loss and heartache (5).

The student shows a degree of skilful and coherent songwriting by setting up the poignancy of the song’s subject matter from the introduction. Songwriting techniques such as repetition and build-up are used to develop and refine the song.

The continuous finger-picked guitar accompaniment suits the somewhat ‘naïve’ character of the song, while the vocalist’s sadness is effectively expressed with a melancholic timbre to the voice.

For a more secure Merit, the student could further develop the lyrics to explore the theme of heartache and loss. Musical ideas could also be further explored, for example, the harmonic structure could be expanded upon from the current 3-chord palette, and the intro could potentially be filled out more. The accompaniment could also be additionally refined to include more variety in the guitar part.  

ACHIEVED EXEMPLAR

For Achieved, the student needs to compose three original songs that express imaginative thinking.

This involves developing, structuring, refining and representing original lyrical and musical ideas coherently and purposefully.

This student has composed a contemporary song entitled, ‘Look What I Made’. It is structured in a mostly recognisable song format, with an intro (1), chorus (2) verses (3), and a distinctive bridge passage (4). The song has an alternative rock feel which is generally coherently and purposefully maintained. The guitar accompaniment includes a variety of strumming and picking patterns to provide additional musical coherence.

The song is atypical in some regards, particularly with the chorus using non-repetitive lyrics, yet there is also a degree of character demonstrated, for example, in the use of a tense and dramatic bridge. The lyrics also demonstrate character and imaginative thinking, with a sense of emotional depth (5):

“Look what I did/Thought I was a healer, I’m the problem”.

The vocalist adds to the emotional depth with a strong and powerful audio recording.

To reach Merit, the student could further refine the song’s lyrics to demonstrate stronger coherency and flow. For example, the switch from first person narrative to third person could be more subtly written to provide additional coherency, and assist in making the song fully effective.